[Sigia-l] Just for you women out there

[Leisa Reichelt]

According to the Guardian pink = weakness. The article says:

"If you're in a meeting full of men and you get out a pink phone," points
out Weaser, "you're probably putting yourself at an even greater
disadvantage."

what the?!

the general gist of the article as I read it is that companies started
making their devices in pink and women bought them up, because they liked
them. But that, actually, it was just the companies tricking women into
buying products that weren't actually improved, just a different colour.
(This is hardly a new thing, it's just pink that's new).

The article ends by inferring that women must be now seeing sense because
the new colour palettes from companies like Blackberry now don't include
pink.

anyone remember that crazy old thing called 'fashion', or, if you will,
'trend'

I for one quite like my pink screwdriver. For me, it's a way of feminising
something that I use all the time quite capably but is still largely
considered a tool that men use.

I buy it quite aware of the fact that I'm paying more just to get it in
pink.

It's not a sign of weakness or stupidity.

as for the pink Hello Kitty diamonte laptop - well that just screams
Japanese youth culture to me much more than it says 'a laptop for chicks'.
The cultural context here is much more relevant than the gender one in this
instance I'd suggest.

Leisa


ref: http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,,2098269,00.html

On 08/06/07, Emily Leahy-Thieler <eleahy_thieler at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I have to admit something: I like pink. Looking at the Hello Kitty laptop
> makes me happy. I don't know why, but there is a subconscious effect
> that  pink has on my brain. And as a professional woman, I've struggled with
> my urge to put Hello Kitty tchotchis on my desk. I wouldn't want my
> coworkers to infer that I'm silly, incapable, and dim. But, in all
> seriousness, do the color pink and cute things in general have to mean
> weakness? Are the standard colors for laptops (black, gray, and white) just
> a reminder that the technology world has been dominated by men? Can't we be
> brilliant, powerful women and still love cute, pink things? There are many
> ways to be feminine and many ways to be powerful. We can be both.
>
> *E
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Ziya Oz <listera at earthlink.net>
> To: SIGIA-L <sigia-l at asis.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 8, 2007 5:54:34 AM
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Just for you women out there
>
>
> Paola Kathuria:
>
> > it's not a big leap to pinkify laptops
>
> iPods are 'pinkified' too. But, c'mon, look at a pink iPod and then look
> at
> this monstrosity. It's not just the color. The whole thing just grosses me
> out. I'd rather glue a brown Zune to my head than look at this, wouldn't
> you?
>
> I'd easily pay $500 to be able to sit in on the meetings where its design
> and branding were conducted. How many anthropologist were slain to come up
> with that gender-cultural insight? Did their focus groups use eye tracking
> equipment? Did they make paper prototypes? :-)
>
> ----
> Ziya
>
> In design, interaction is the last resort.
>
>
>
> ------------
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> April 10-14, 2008, Miami, Florida
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-- 
________________________
Leisa Reichelt
Contextual Research & User Centred Design

leisa.reichelt at gmail.com
www.disambiguity.com